Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Surveillance in the future

Foucault’s Discipline and Punishment, disuccess the observations ofeighteenth century France: “…this uncesasing information had to be documented in a series of reports and registers…what was registered in this way were forms of behavior, attitides, possibilities, suspicious-a permanent account of individual’s behavior” (Applerouth , 2008, p. 661). Think about the ways we as individuals abide by these ideas, for example police reports, what are other examples of these kinds of individual records the government or society has of individuals? In the country that we live in, do you think social security numbers assign to citizens are a way to maintain power over the individual? While at the same time instill fear in citizens by making them a number and thus easier to manipulate? If not do you think this is or something similar is possible in the future?

6 comments:

I think a permanent record of unlawful acts should be recorded as a means of protecting law abiding citizens. As far as other kinds of records the company keeps on individuals are credit scores, debts, medical history, etc... I do believe that social security numbers are a way to maintain power and instill fear, but at the same time this could be a good thing. Individuals will know that their unlawful behavior will have consequences for the rest of their lives. For example, a thief will be less likely to steal because of the fear of getting caught, which will cause the government to put theft on his record that remains with him/her forever. The fact that it is a number is a problem, I think it is very easy to manipulate and we should definitely consider other means to identification besides a number. A social security card does not even display a picture, it is very lame of the government to use such an easy to manipulate number as a means of identification.

what are other examples of these kinds of individual records the government or society has of individuals? In the country that we live in, do you think social security numbers assign to citizens are a way to maintain power over the individual? While at the same time instill fear in citizens by making them a number and thus easier to manipulate? If not do you think this is or something similar is possible in the future?

sorry for the mistake i made above...I think that police records are a good thing to have in order for one to keep track of those who have broken the law but it is hard to get rid of it and it comes with a stigma. There are many people who have committed crimes because of reckless thinking but it doesn’t mean they will always think that way. My husband for example was a real trouble maker when he was a kid. He was always in and out of juvenile hall and when he turned 18 he was sent to jail. When we had a daughter it was difficult for me to see my husband struggle with the fact that he couldn’t make a good living to support us all because of what he had done in his past. He was a teenager when all this happened and even though he was a completely different man he had to live with immense punishment for over 7 years. I guess what I am trying to say is people make mistakes and with these records we become them which can make it difficult to overlook and get to know the person.

Yes I believe this is a way to maintain power over the individual, and this isn’t the only one, we could also think about car plates, id’s,etc. and it will certainly keep happening in the future because it is functional, it is a good way to catch ‘bad guys’

Police reports are a good way to keep people from committing crimes. After certain amount of violations, you know that you are going to pay a price. Social security numbers are designed to keep us controlled. In London they don’t have social security numbers, people are not required to have Identification cards on them all the time. But they have video cameras for every two residents. So they are also been controlled not with SS numbers but with surveillance cameras. From my point of view every country/state have their own forms of controlling their residents.

Nowadays there are all kinds of records out there for example credit reports, medical history, police records etc.. I am not against them because they keep our citizens in check and ensures to a certain level that we will not engage in deviant behavior. I would agree with the fact that the use of social security numbers is a way to maintain power among the individuals for without a social security number we basically do not exist. We are more than just a number. However this has been in play for so long that everyone has accepted it and they abide by it. Everyone may complain about this but I think it would be really interesting to see how long it would take for someone to actually do something about it.